Prudence
by PenguinMinion
Summary: Esther, Finn, Rebekah, and Kol are now dead, leaving Klaus and Elijah as the only living Originals. But their deaths have set off a chain reaction of events that will change the entire vampire population, and it will be a race against time to stop it.


Prudence

**AN:** Helloooo to all the wonderful readers! :D It's good to be back after a week of writing essays for school and I am super excited to be beginning the sequel to Silence! This story is not actually a KlausXSilence centered fic BUT there will be tons of those two to come (Big thanks to my big sister, LeaderPinhead, who will be writing most of the KlausXSi parts) (: I'm also super happy that so many of you liked Lucinda! By request, I have placed a link to how I see Lucinda on my profile. Without further ado, I give you the first chapter n_n

**DISCLAMER:** this will be the only disclaimer I write for this story because I am simply too lazy to copy and paste it to the other chapters. So I do NOT own anything related to The Vampire Diaries (If I did Elena would be dead by now and Damon would find an amazing beautiful girl that's loves him unconditionally). HOWEVER, I do own Silence Tudor, Lucinda Mason, and Gregory Pudeator and no one has permission to copy these characters (I don't know why anyone would want to anyways:P)

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**Prudence**: 1) the quality or fact of being prudent; 2) caution with regard to practical matters; discretion**; 3) regard for one's own interests**; 4) provident care in the management of resources, economy, frugality.

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Damon threw his cell phone behind him and into the backseat. He was annoyed. For the past hour he had repeatedly called Elena's phone only to be answered by the same generic voicemail message.

As his hands tightened with annoyance around the steering wheel, Lucinda sat in the passenger seat silently snickering at him.

"Ok, since neither Elena nor Elijah is planning to pick up the damn phone any time soon, we have no idea of the whereabouts of our dear dead friend, Si."

Lucinda chuckled again at the impatient vampire next to her, and for the first time since they began their journey back to Mystic Falls her soft voice filled the car. "Don't worry, with you drivin' like a manic we will get there in no time."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Not soon enough," he spoke under his breath, but Lucinda heard him anyways.

After the short conversation, silence filled the car once again and neither of them spoke for well over an hour. While Lucinda found peace staring out the window watching the hills role past them, Damon was going slightly crazy at the stillness in the car and eventually had to break it.

"So, tell me about yourself." Damon glanced over at her.

"What would you like to know?" Lucinda asked without turning towards him. Damon pondered on this question for a moment before he gave his answer.

"Everything." And it was true; Damon wanted to know everything about the tranquil vampire sitting next to him.

"There isn't much to tell," she began, finally turning from the window to look in his direction. "I lived. I died. And by the grace of God, Si brought me back to give me a second chance."

Lucinda thought this would be the end of the conversation, but she had yet to quench Damon's desire for answers.

"Good summary," he said with a smirk. "Now, tell me the whole story. We are stuck in this car until we get back to Mystic Falls, so we should at least get to know each other a little, don't you think?"

"I already know everything about you, Damon. You were a soldier in the Confederate Army, you were in love with the same girl, who happened to be a vampire, as your brother, and you have a heart of a naïve boy." Damon stared at the back of her head, the road he was driving on temporarily forgotten. After a few minutes of silence, Lucinda turned to glance at him. His eyes were wide with question.

"Or at least that's what Si told me." The words came out in a rush as if she was trying to cover up a blunder. A few more seconds passed before Damon laughed and looked back towards the road.

"Nope, Si got it all right." Damon shook his head and chuckled at the thought of Si. "So you know all about me thanks to Si, but I don't know anything about you, which just doesn't seem fair."

Lucinda let out a "_humph" _and finally decided she was done arguing this point with him. "What is it that you want to know so badly?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Let's start from how you know Si. You said you died but then she gave you a second chance, so I'm guessing she is the one who changed you into a vampire."

Lucinda nodded; instead of turning back to look out the window again, she kept her gaze on Damon. "I was dying of a fever." She rolled her eyes. "A silly thing to die from I know, but by the time we, my family I mean, made it back home from California the fever was to bad stop."

"California?" His eyebrows raised in question.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm leavin' things out of the story. Here, I'll just start from the beginning," she began rambling. "My family and I left Georgia in 1849 to go to California." Damon's eyes widened slightly when he heard how old she was; he expected her to be a lot younger than him.

"My Uncle had died the year before and left us with all of his gambling depts. We didn't have much money to spare so Ma and Pa decided to load up and move out to California and search for gold. We were there for little over a year when we finally had enough money to pay for everything, and on the trip home I fell sick, but I wouldn't tell anybody because my little brother, Bobby Evary, was sick at the same time and he needed more attention than me."

Damon smiled. The farther Lucinda got into telling her story, the more animated she became. Before long her quiet voice almost doubled in volume. She was not only speaking with her voice but also with her hands, and Damon was now able to clearly hear her southern accent.

"About two days after we returned home, my fever got worse and everyone pretty much knew it was the end of the road for me. One day it was just me and my grandma sittin' in the front room of her house when suddenly she jumped up out of her chair and took off running out the door like the devil himself was after her." Lucinda giggled at the memory.

"She was almost ninety-two years old; Lord knows she shouldn't have been runnin'." She rolled her eyes but kept smiling. "My grandma always told us she had a sixth sense; she could colors floatin' 'round people that told her exactly what type of person they were. Si had been walkin' down the road and grandma had seen her out the window. She dragged her into the house and begged her to keep me from dyin'." Lucinda rolled her eyes once again.

"Si said she didn't know what the old lady was talking about, that she couldn't help me. A good actress Si is, but she couldn't fool my grandma. Old lady grabbed her by her ear and told her to quit lyin' because she knew she could help." This time both Lucinda and Damon were laughing at the thought of Si began told what to do by an old lady.

"I wasn't supposed to die." Lucinda sighed and a somber feeling filled the car. "We thought once Si fed me her blood I would be healthy again, but the sickness had spread so far that I died anyways."

Damon glanced over at Lucinda who was now staring at her lap where she twisted her hands together.

"My Pa was a preacher and he thought of Si as a demon, and since I was like her now, so was I. He didn't know I was a vampire, but it didn't matter. He kicked me out and told me to stay away from his family. My grandma wasn't happy about it, but she didn't have any say-so anymore."

Suddenly Lucinda's head snapped up, and she looked back out the window.

"And that was that. Si and I stayed in Georgia until my grandma died, and then we left to travel America for a while, but soon we found our way back to my home and I couldn't bring myself to leave again. Si stayed until she got word of where Klaus was, and well, you know the rest."

A thousand questions raced through Damon's head but he could only bring himself to ask one.

"How old were you when you died?"

Lucinda kept her eyes trained out the window but the solemn tone had left her voice. "I had just turned nineteen."

After a few moments of silence, Lucinda turned and smiled at Damon. "So did I answer your question?"

Damon couldn't help but return her infectious grin. "Yes Ma'am you did."

She giggled at his faux chivalry.

The pair didn't speak much for the rest of the trip; instead they found comfort in just being in the other's presence.

By the time darkness had settled around the car, they were pulling into Mystic Falls. Thanks to Damon's insanely fast vampire driving, they were able to cut the time of their trip in half.

Before Lucinda even knew it, they had pulled up in front of the Salvatore Boarding House. Even while sitting in the car, they could hear the screams coming from inside.

"That doesn't sound good," Lucinda commented while they both stared out the window towards the house.

In the next second, the door slammed open and a figure marched out: Elena.

Upon seeing Damon's car in the driveway, Elena changed her course and stomped towards the car. In a matter of seconds, Elena had opened the driver's side door and dragged Damon out by his neck with her new found vampire strength. Lucinda quickly moved out of the car also but stood still watching Elena slap Damon repeatedly from over the top of the car.

"You jerk!" Elena yelled as she landed another hit on Damon's cheek. "I wake up from dying to find out that you had disappeared! And you didn't tell anyone where you were going! Do you have any idea how worried I was?" Before he could respond, she moved to strike him again. Luckily he was able to break the hold she had on him and move away in time to not be hit.

"I had business to take care of, and I couldn't sit around waiting for sleeping beauty to come back to the land of the walking dead," Damon responded sarcastically. Elena rolled her eyes but before she could respond another body marched out of the house.

"Elena!" Elijah growled into the darkness. "Get back here this instance! We are not done talking!"

"Trouble in paradise?" Damon commented off handedly while turning to motion to Lucinda that it was ok for her to join him while walking towards the door. Lucinda caught up to him quickly while ignoring the questioning glance from Elena.

Soon they were standing face to face with a severely ticked off Elijah as he marched out of the door while they attempted to walk in. Damon couldn't help but laugh.

"I thought you said you were going back vampire after Elena woke up?" Damon questioned a very human Elijah. Elijah glared back at him.

"She won't kill me."

"Of course I won't!" Elena was once again screaming. "What girl in her right mind would kill the man she loves?"

"One you knew would come back to life in a couple of hours?" Elijah asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Don't get sarcastic with me!" she shrieked again.

Damon cut in before their quarrel could escalate. "Have you been drinking vampire blood?"

"Of course." Now Elijah was ignoring Elena's infuriated screams. "She gives me her blood but refuses to kill me or allow me to kill myself."

"Do not ignore me!" Elena once again demanded the attention from both men.

Lucinda stood slightly on the outside of the three's imaginary circle while watching them scream and ignore each other. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted two more people enter the front room—a slightly frazzled man and woman who looked exactly like the one in front of her yelling. Lucinda was now officially confused.

"So you have been drinking vampire blood?" Damon asked again for clarification.

"Didn't I already say that?" Elijah answered in an irritated voice.

Damon shrugged and before anyone could see what was happening he stepped forward, grabbed onto Elijah's head, and gave it a quick twist. Elijah fell to the ground hard—and dead.

"Why did you do that?" Elena screamed at him as she fell onto the floor next to the lifeless body.

Damon shrugged. "That is the only time I will ever be able to kill him without him fighting back, so let the record show that Damon Salvatore did in fact kill Elijah, an Original."

"Si won't be happy with that," Lucinda's soft voice cut through Damon's happy moment.

Damon's eyebrows rose. "Can we deal with one problem at a time? Stefan, Katerina." Damon acknowledged the two other vampires in the room with a nod of his head, and then turned back to Lucinda. "Remember how you said you knew I fell in love with the same girl as my brother?" Lucinda nodded. "That's them." He jerked his head in their direction. "And this is her royal majesty doppelganger Elena." He now pointed down towards the girl who sat next to Elijah. "And I assume you know Elijah?" He pointed to the dead body on the ground.

"Only from pictures," Lucinda responded with wide eyes.

"Ok now that we've had introductions and I've killed Elijah, can someone tell me what I've missed?" Damon asked.

Katerina was in front of him in a second. She pushed her hands in front of his face. "Do you know what is happening?" Her fingers, which had previously only grayed at the finger tips, were now almost halfway grey.

"That doesn't look good." Damon looked at them in question. Stefan walked closer.

"We know it isn't good, Damon. We've asked everyone we could find what could be causing this, but no one has answers."

"Have you asked Klaus?" Lucinda butted into their conversation.

"We haven't seen him since the sacrifice. We think he has left town." Stefan answered. "Not to be rude but who are you?"

Lucinda smiled and stepped forward reaching out to shake Stefan's hand. "Lucinda Mason: personal friend of Si. And I'll tell you now, if Klaus is with Si, he's got a little too much to handle right now to be able to leave town so quickly."

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Duck behind something, pause, look over the top, continue. It was like a pattern as the young vampire crept across the living room. It was a good thing that her "fiancé" wasn't cheap and had floors that didn't creak at every step. She peaked over the couch, the something she was currently ducked behind, and seeing the coast was clear, she dramatically tiptoed to her target. Halfway there, her boots squeaked against the waxed floor, and she froze mid-step.

"Just because you are still, does not mean you suddenly become invisible."

Si cursed and straightened from her awkward position to see Klaus standing in the doorway, arrogantly eating his popcorn. "Well thank you _dear_, you ruined the dramatic effect of the whole process."

He picked up a piece of popcorn and popped it into his mouth. "And what process is that _sweetheart?_"

She glanced around the room. "I was…going to turn the TV on."

He smirked and flicked some popcorn at her. "There is no TV in here."

"I thought there was something strange about this room," she said, collapsing on the couch. "What living room doesn't have a TV?"

Klaus smiled at her. "I have to have something to put in the numerous rooms of this house. It doesn't help that Kol decided to rearrange the house when he moved in."

Si glared at the name. "He was a weird little brat." Her glare transferred to the popcorn he was so calmly eating. "Klaus, I need to get out of this damn house."

He shook his head, switching the hand he held his bowl of popcorn in. "How can I be sure that you won't run off?"

"Because I look so dang adorable when I say I won't," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him.

He gave her a strange look. "Don't do that again, it looked wrong."

Si sighed. "I am going crazy in this house."

"Then explore the many rooms in the house," he interrupted, looking down at his bowl when his hand encountered nothing. "You might find something that Kol left behind. Until then, I shall make me more popcorn."

Klaus left, ignoring the glare he received for the mention of his deceased brother. Si continued to glare until he was out of her sight and jumped off the couch immediately. The window was only a few feet away and there was no way he was stopping her this time!

She started for it when her boots squeaked on the floor again. The traitors were going to give her position away! She reached down and undid the laces even as she half hopped, half ran to the window. Her squeaky feet would have alerted him…

The boot came off and she froze just as Klaus appeared out of nowhere to carefully slam her against the wall. He smirked down at her and leaned in closely. "It is not that easy darling."

His smirk fell when he realized that she wasn't pouting up at him. Instead she was looking down in horror as the boot she still held slipped from her hand. He looked down with her and jumped back to get a clearer view of her.

"Klaus," she said in a slightly shaky voice, looking down at grey color that extended to right below her knee and the pronounced veins that pushed against her skin. "That doesn't look good."

Klaus couldn't help but give her a "you think?" look before scooping her up into his arms and carrying her over to the couch. He placed her on the cushion and moved to remove her other boot. It was actually pretty hard to do when he only had one hand as the other was being crushed by Si. Once it had been removed, the hold on his hand tightened at the sight of the same effect that was crawling up her other leg as well.

"What is going on?" she asked in a slightly panicked voice. "Is this some sort of side effect from Gregory's spell?"

Klaus resisted the urge to growl at the warlock's name. Now was not the time to dwell on petty jealousy. "You didn't ask him about the side effects."

His question did exactly as he meant it to do, distract her from the current situation as she turned a glare to him. "I was a little busy trying to get back before your _lovely_ mother impaled you with a stake!" She yelped and clutched his hand as the progression visibly moved up her leg. "Niklaus!"

"Okay, okay," Klaus said as calmly as he could, racking his free hand through her short hair. "First thing to be done would be for you to release my hand before you break it." Si let it go as she just realized she was really close to breaking his hand. "Alright now, was there anything…_Gregory _said could happen after the spell had been cast?"

Si wracked her brain for anything Gregory could have possible told her. "Well, all I can clearly remember after _dying_ is him yelling at me to get out of his house because he had a date. But seriously, who would date an old geezer like him. Not that I can say anything, I mean he's only about half my age. And I'm chasing after _you_."

He stopped inspecting her leg. "Is that supposed to offend me in some way?"

Her eyes flickered around the room. "You _are _a thousand years old."

Klaus sighed and went along with her attempt to distract herself from the situation. "Well you agreed to marry me."

"And look where you robbing the cradle got us!" she exclaimed, pointing down at her legs. "I'm turning grey from the bottom up!" Her voice cracked at the end and tears suddenly flooded her green eyes. "Niklaus, _what is happening to me?"_

Klaus drew her close, using one hand to stroke her brown hair and the other to rub comforting circles on her back. "I don't know what is going on, but I will find out and I _will_ stop it."

She sniffed into his shirt but refused to let the tears fall from her eyes. "Take me to Elijah."

"What?" he asked in response to her mumbled demand.

Si sat up to glare at him with reddened eyes. "Take me to Elijah."

"Why? I just said-"

"I want Elijah!" she cut him off. "And he's smarter."

Klaus chuckled at her poor attempt to offend him. "If you think he can help-"

"He can."

"-then I will take you to him," he finished, scooping her back into his arms. "Though I honestly don't see how he can help."

Si sniffled and clutched his shirt as he walked through the house to the front door. "You do know I can walk."

"Don't push me Silence."

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**AN: And Chapter 1 is complete! :D **

**Tell me what you guys think! REVIEW! **

**~PenguinMinion**

**FUN FACT: Did you know that the California Gold Rush took place before the Civil War? Now you do :D**


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